how do i search for a file in linux from the command prompt?

[stratusfear]

??

 

[bockie]

I use:

find / | grep "filename"

There's probably a more efficient way that I am unaware of.

 

[Cyph3r]

find / -name 'string' -type f -print

/ - Directory to search. Can be replaced with "." to indicate just the current directory and it's subdirectories.
'string' - Filename containing this string. Wildcards are allowed
f - A type F indicates that you are only looking for files, as opposed to D for directories.
-print - Print result to the string, most versions of find usually default this, so this is MOST probably not required. But it's a habit..

Regards

 

[Bremen]

locate is a faster command, however it requires that you keep an up to date database. Mandrake probably included a cron job to do this, but if you feel like doing it manually the command is slocate. I really suggest reading the related man files.

 

[n0cmonkey]

If the dir the file is in is in your path the command "which filename" will tell you where it is.